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Sunday, July 22, 2007

East to Edinburgh - New York’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe Preview

I recently performed the new version of RASH at 59E59 Theaters in New York (July 10-13) as part of their East to Edinburgh festival, featuring NY based performers heading for the Edinburgh Fringe. It was a wonderful experience. It was like a mini trial run for the Fringe which is part of the objective of the festival. It gave me a chance to perform the show as it will be in the Fringe with a revised script, brand new sound, lighting and image cues and a new costume! I got a chance to set up and break down the stage in 30 minutes - which is 15 more minutes than I will get at the Fringe. I was reviewed by the press (at least 5 different press folks showed up) - check out the first review that has come out that I'm very happy about at http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/prnn/495.htm. 59E59 Theaters is run by a fantastic group of folks and the support that I got with regard to production management, press and marketing, box office etc was the best I had ever received. I learned a lot about what it really means to produce a fully fledged show and it was such a pity I couldn't perform more nights as audience attendance was great. My biggest discovery was in my lovely dressing room where for the first time, I had a speaker in there that allowed me to hear what was going on inside the theatre. This was a bit nerve racking, hearing people taking their seats and the pre-show chit chat, but the weirdest thing was running back stage after the show and then realising that if I listened carefully enough I would be able to hear what people were saying about the show. But I closed my ears, honest! I also had to deal with my first major technical hitch. On opening night I spent the first 5 minutes in the dark as the board operator searched desperately for the stage lights. Many people thought it was done on purpose and added to the atmosphere of the play, some others were more suspect! But that's the joy of live theatre!